Social media is a cutthroat game. The irony? No one is even social.

When I first downloaded Instagram — circa, 2012? Maybe? It was simply a place where you shared a photo, you knew everyone on your follower list and there wasn’t such a thing as “stories.”

Yes, I’m taking it way back:

No stories

No business tools

No influencers

Maybe the occasional foodie. And, even that phenomenon fizzled quick.*

What happened to trends remaining trends, and only hopping on your feed maybe, er…once every week or so? We were a more disciplined audience, then. When Instagram and Snapchat started simultaneously gaining traction after Facebook — the Myspace successor — lost its young audience and it’s Ancestry-adjacent, here’s-someone-from-your-high school-that-you-never-wanted-to-hear-from-again adult audience moseyed in, major changes rolled out, and the “hashtag” became a universal tool.

Don’t get me wrong — I have my own social media accounts, but, almost involuntarily. Does anyone else feel like they’re missing out on life without it? The irony is almost too sad. Though I have these accounts, my involvement and perception of them has definitely changed course over the past years — and after educating yourself, yours should too.

Pressure. Forced expression. Disappointment. Frustration. Self-loathing.

This is taking a picture for my feed (consensus taken based off myself), and in that order.

Then, when you taken the dreaded “eh…this could work” kind of photo — the over-analyzation overwhelms any kind of positive thoughts you had on this one mediocre snap. *logs off*

It was specifically this tennis match of a game that social media made me play and had me call the referee for a timeout; but will you reach your Break Point?

What are some experiences that made you leave — or limit — your social media use?

And if you haven’t logged off yet: do you think you could live without it?

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*no it hasn’t